After much hard work, EC’s Honors Transfer Program is now ranked No. 2 in TAP (transfer alliance program) with students admitted to UCLA.

About 84 students were admitted, which is 89 percent of the overall applicants.

“It’s mostly because we have a good team,” Joseph Holliday, director of the Honors Transfer Program, said. “They’re the best in the business.”

The program is the second largest on campus with 450 students enrolled and 150 coming in every year.

The program staff owes its success to the hard work of its staff members and hopes to continue with the help of funding and persistence.

“To keep this up, we’d like additional support from the administrators even during times of budget crisis,” Holliday said. “It can’t be done without money.”

In addition to its higher ranking, which was originally No. 5, the numbers of students admitted to universities is also rising.

“What’s even better is that our percentage of students that got in has been going up each year, whereas others have been going down,” Holliday said.

This has been occurring because the number of TAP applicants has increased 20 percent while the numbers in other colleges have gone down.

With this achievement, the program hopes to have more students admitted into the program.

“It adds prestige and credibility and gives the program a boost,” Donna Baldwin, program assistant, said. “It may translate to more students being encouraged to join the program.”

Currently, the program is remaining focused on maintaining its status.

“We hope to see the program grow and maintain its second place standing, if not move to 1,” Baldwin said.

Many students attribute their success to the program and consider it a big help with their education.

“It helps a lot. It increases your chances (of getting into a university) quite a bit, which makes it look good,” Caitlin Cooke, honors transfer student who was accepted to UCLA this year and anthropology major, said.

Being the only program devoted to highly motivated students when it comes to transferring to UCs or other private schools, with 120 students transferring every year, students find honors transfer classes to be more favorable to them.

“Honors classes are better since you know the people are more focused, so there’s a better atmosphere,” Cooke said.